


Ways to Fly

by willow_larkspur



Series: Gwen's Competition Fics [135]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, BAMF Claudia Zabini, Creature Zabinis, Desi Potters, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Wings Appear When Soulmates Meet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24084895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willow_larkspur/pseuds/willow_larkspur
Summary: Claudia would do anything to spare her son the same pain she felt.Including essentially kidnap the Boy-Who-Lived.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini
Series: Gwen's Competition Fics [135]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1250309
Comments: 11
Kudos: 365
Collections: MC4A Year 3





	Ways to Fly

**Author's Note:**

> Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I’m just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn’t going to get you anything but tears.  
> Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, there are references to canon child abuse & manipulations. Feel free to back out if need be.  
> Author’s Note: So...who’s pacing their houses like tigers in cages?

(^^)

**Ways to Fly**

(^^)

Claudia Zabini was not a woman who did anything by halves. She had absorbed all the lessons from her lineage at the knee of her mother. Poise under pressure was something she had learned along with ballet and etiquette. Through all her life, her mother’s words had followed her, giving her strength and wisdom.

_Speak softly. Weigh your words. Know your power. Tread gently._

When she had attended Durmstrang, she had learned other lessons, ones more foreign to those of her kind. After all, what does a lorelai care for the meaningless syllables of a family name when scent alone screams alliances? But going through those frozen halls with only her own strength and skills to protect herself had taught her precision.

She had also waited until she had finished her Arithmancy apprenticeship to do the ritual which revealed that her soulmate was Antonio Zabini, heir to the Most Honorable House of Zabini. Meeting him, seeing his wings burst into being under the Sicillian sun—it was all perfect. For days, they had both revelled in learning about their new appendages as well as each other. They had bonded quickly, quite scandalously, but neither of them could stand to be without the other for another moment. Blaise was likely conceived during their honeymoon.

Antonio had been killed just days before Blaise had been born, along with the rest of his family. In a single night, she had gone from happily bonded to her soulmate and a part of a large extended family to alone and pregnant, as her mother had passed away shortly before Claudia had graduated from Durmstrang.

She had never discovered which side of Britain’s civil war had been responsible. Antonio had been staunchly rebuffing emissaries from both mad men. All the way back to its founding during the Roman occupation of Britannia, the House of Zabini had been neutral. That neutrality had allowed more than one generation to broker peace between feuding groups while allowing them to protect noncombatants. Neither the self-proclaimed Dark Lord nor the alleged Leader of the Light had approved of the Zabini neutrality. Both were known for their ruthlessness.

When the invitation letter from Hogwarts came, Claudia wanted nothing more than to send back a politely worded refusal. Yet she hesitated. Her son, her brilliant and shrewd son, had lost his father before he had even been born. Then every time she sought to give him another parent, magic saw fit to steal them away. What if by keeping Blaise from Hogwarts, she stole precious years he could have with his own soulmate?

The ritual to reveal the name of Blaise’s soulmate had netted surprising results. Magic had a sense of humor when she made her selections, true enough, but never in her wildest dreams did Claudia imagine that her precious child would be matched with the last scion of the Eternal House of Peverell. The Potters were once as large a family as the Blacks, before illness and war whittled them down to only an heir that had not been seen since he failed to die from an alleged direct hit of the Killing Curse from the self-styled Dark Lord himself. That same child now had no one to speak with to arrange a formal meeting.

So Claudia did what any self-respecting mother would have done.

She took care of everything.

(^^)

Harry kicked his feet, too nervous to stay still. Hedwig chittered in her cage. Perched on top of his truck as it was, the owl was right at eye level. He could tell that she was trying to make eye contact, like how they had been practicing the last month, but his mind was too occupied to spare the effort that the action would take.

Uncle Vernon had laughed before he had left Harry here. It had been a huge joke to him that the ticket Hagrid had left him was for a train leaving from a platform that didn’t exist. Alone in this busy place, Harry didn’t think it was quite so funny. In fact, he was as close to actually crying as he had been for years.

It wasn’t _fair_.

Magic had explained everything. It explained why the strange things kept happening around him. It explained why things bothered him when they didn’t bother anyone else. It explained why he couldn’t do some of the things that everyone else could do so easily—simple things like eye contact or pullups. It would even explain why he heard spaces or felt sounds.

Hogwarts was supposed to be his turn to be around others like him.

 _It wasn’t fair_.

“You look lost,” a woman said as she sat beside him on the bench. She wore a fine dress, the kind that would have made Aunt Petunia filled with bitter jealousy, except that it was a brilliant shade of purple—like a grape. No one as pale as Aunt Petunia would be able to wear it without looking sick. Paired with the woman’s dark skin, it was dramatic but nice. “You also look like you could use a friend.”

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” Harry said by rote. Hedwig clacked her beak in agreement. The woman just smiled and waved her fingers at the owl.

“My name is Claudia Zabini,” she said, “and you’re Haridard Potter.”

“It’s ‘Harry’,” he corrected. “You must have the wrong person.”

“Of course,” Claudia agreed. He eyed her without turning his head fully. “Why would you recognize the name your mother gave you? Who would have told you?”

“Why?” Harry asked, exhausted already and it wasn’t even eleven o’clock yet. He still had to find a way back to Little Whinging. “Why do you care?”

“I believe that we can help each other,” Claudia said like she was the rich lady of a fine house on one of Aunt Petunia’s telly shows. “You are in need of an ally, someone who could actually protect you. I can be that ally, if you wish.”

“What’s in it for you?” Harry asked. If he learned nothing else from the Dursleys, it was that nothing was free. At least, nothing was free for him. Other children might get things like food or hugs without earning them. He was different. He had always been different.

 _It just wasn’t fair_.

“I get to see you happy,” she said, turning him to fully face her. “I get to see you healthy and safe—loved, just like any mother would want for her child.”

“No one would love me,” he muttered. He couldn’t bear to raise his eyes to her face. Her hands were cool against his cheeks as she cupped them.

“Let me prove you wrong, little one.” She waved someone over before taking his left hand in her right one. “I can give you a family that treasures you as you deserve, as you should have been treated all your life.”

“Really?” He hated how weak his voice sounded. Having everything he ever hoped for seemingly within his grasp hurt, but like an old scab, he couldn’t help but pick at it. “Can you really do all that?”

“I can, little one,” Claudia promised. A hand joined theirs over the back of the bench. Unable to stop himself, Harry raised his eyes to look at the new person. The boy had the same dark beauty that Claudia did. Most startling, his eyes were the exact same shade of purple as Claudia’s dress.

The world faded away as Harry lost himself in a sea of blue-violet. He was only dimly aware of something flexing and fluttering behind him. He was too caught by that gaze and the copper wings that now framed the boy on either side. By careful inches, the boy came closer until they touched foreheads.

Harry let out a breath as his eyes slid shut.

Things were finally starting to seem a bit more fair.

**Author's Note:**

> Submitting Info:  
> Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A  
> Individual Challenges: Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Durmstrang MC; Magical MC (x3); Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Claimed; Setting Sail; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); Feathers & Such; Short Jog (Y); Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon (Y); Greatest Gift  
> House: Hufflepuff  
> Assignment No.: Term 12 – Assignment 7  
> Subject (Task No.): n/a  
> Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [72](Ruthless); Words [217](Neutral); All is Ours Day [H2](Soulmates AU); Gwen's Candy Shop [Bowl 3](Black Character)(Autistic Harry Potter); Herbology Club [Plot 1] (Soulmates AU); Days of the Year [May 23](Someone having a lucky turn of events); Spring Challenge [05](Happy); Color Prompts [10](Grape); Tarot Cards [02](Motherhood); Earth Element [06](Rich); Well Behaved Women (Claudia Zabini)(Wings AU)(Black Character); Hufflepuff Themed Prompts [T11](Courteous); Spring Astrology [June 5](Something good coming from a bad situation); History of Spring [03](“Strength of love” as Theme)]  
> Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [1D](Copper); TrB [3C](Applied Phlebotinum); Hunt [Sp Writing Diversity](Synesthesia); Ship [Sp Micro 1](Creature AU); Chim (Family/Friendship)  
> Representation(s): Claudia Zabini; autistic Harry Potter; Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini (pre-ship)  
> Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Nontraditional; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress); Chorus (Wabi Sabi); Demo (Most Human Bean); Demo (Creature Feature)  
> Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Toad); SN (Rail; Intercept)  
> Word Count: 1313


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